The U.S. Department of Agriculture released on August 8 a new conservation plan designed to improve habitat in the Appalachian Mountains for the golden-winged warbler. The plan outlines how the Natural Resources Conservation Service and partners will work with landowners to improve habitat on 15,000 acres of privately owned forests. The partners will work to provide young forest habitat and shrublands, the nesting habitat preferred by the at-risk warbler. The strategy identifies new priority areas for conservation that were developed last fall using data from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Cornell University and other partners. Strategic conservation efforts will be directed to these priority areas.

“Many of our nation’s forests have fallen into poor health, and we have a tremendous opportunity in Appalachia to make a difference both for landowners and for wildlife,” NRCS Acting Chief Leonard Jordan said. “Our effort is to diversify the age classes of trees in forests, creating patches of forests of different ages, and for the golden-winged warbler, we’re focusing on those younger forests within landscapes dominated by mature forests.”